... just Laura

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Love And Marriage

I've had a very slow start to this week. The stomach flu found me for the second time in a month and a half, and it's had me down for the count for the last few days. So not cool. I'm one that so rarely gets sick, so I'm a little annnoyed to have so much sickness around me and all the little ones lately. Anyways. I had my May project sheet layout go up on the Bella Blvd blog on Mother's Day.

I was asked to create a Mother's Day layout, using the Love and Marriage collection and crochet hearts. Easy to do. Bella's collections are always full of super versitle patterns and designs, so they're not limited to the actual theme of the collection. The wedding collection worked perfectly for this Mother's Day layout.

You can download and print our project sheet, complete with a supply list and full instructions, right HERE.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: National Scrapbook Day

I'm getting a late start to posting a few projects that I created for National Scrapbook Day! Turns out, I never do any scrapping on NSD. I'm too busy blogging about it! First up, there's been a ton of good stuff happening over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog.

For my contribution to the NSD activities, I created a layout for the Old & New Challenge.

This is a great opportunity to dig into your stash and pull out some of those older products that you've been hanging onto for years. I think we all have good intentions of using these products, but they sometimes end up forgotten as we collect all the latest and greatest products and enjoy using those items while they're fresh and new.

 

For my "old" product, I decided to pull out some very old Making Memories chipboard alphas that I have always loved. I pulled out one of each letter of the alphabet and arranged them around the outside edges of my page. I had good intentions of painting them all to match my background paper, but when I came across this older sheet of embossed cardstock from Core'dinations, I liked how the raw chipboard alphas created a tone-on-tone effect with the cardstock and decided to leave them plain.

I did want to spiffy up the chipboard alphas a bit, so I used a new-to-me embossing folder, along with my trusty Cuttlebug die cut machine, to emboss each letter with fun polka dots. It gives a nice, subtle effect to the letters.

For my "new" products, I pulled out some of the newest embellishments from Bella Blvd. A few feathers (in white, pink, and navy blue to match), a few crochet hearts (in white and grey to match), and a few fun little stick pin flags. I clustered all of these embellishments together, to go beside the adorable photo of one of my daycare kiddos.

Bella Blvd is the sponsor for my hour, and they are giving away an assortment of feathers, crochet hearts, and maybe even some flags, to one lucky winner. For this particular giveaway, you can leave a comment HERE.

However, you'll want to check out all of the posts from today on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog (there's a lot of them!), because there some fabulous giveaways on each and every post. All of the giveaways are open until 6:00pm, EST, on Sunday, May 11th, so you have lots of time to get your comments in for a chance to win!

Bella Blvd: She's So Twirly

I have another layout to share from the Paper Crafters Library feature I did for Bella Blvd.

This layout wasn't planned in any way, shape, or form. All I knew was that I had borrowed these adorably cute photos from my friend Krista, of her oldest daughter, and I wanted to create a fun little layout with them.

I had something totally different in mind when I printed the photos, which is why I printed them as 2x3's. I still went ahead and used them, but I kind of wish I had printed them a bit larger, since they were so cute.

I framed my page with a few border strips of patterned paper, and some black chevron designer tape. All of the patterned papers and then stickers for this layout are from the Engaged At Last collection. Which is NOT just for engagement photos ;)

I wanted to try a little something different for adding the feathers to this layout. I decided to cut some circles out of the page, layer the entire page onto another sheet of cardstock, and adhere the feathers inbetween the layers and under the circles.

When it comes to circles, I still use my trusty circle cutter from Creative Memories, which I have had for years and years. It's great for cutting circles out of places where a punch just won't reach. I cut three circles from my white cardstock, and then adhered just the left side of the page to a scrap piece of cardstock.This allowed me to lift up the right side of the white cardstock, and arrange the feathers exactly where I wanted them. I stapled the feathers in place, and then once they were all secured, I finished adhering my white cardstock all the way down.

I decided to cut a few thin circle outlines from black cardstock, to add to the bottom two circles. I would have cut one for the top circle as well, but I wasn't able to cut one that size with the circle cutter, and I wasn't about to try and do it by hand. I cannot cut a circle freehand if my life depended on it.

I managed to type this post up fairly quickly. It's amazing how long it takes sometimes to type up something so simple. Now maybe I can get to bed at a decent time. I have a very full house of kiddos tomorrow, and I just know it's going to be a rough day. Wish me luck!

Bella Blvd: Senior

I'm so glad it's Friday! We've been passing a not-so-lovely stomach bug around our family and daycare familes for the past week and a half. I am so ready for all of to be heathly and happy again. I have a TON of scrapping projects on my plate over the next few weeks and am desperately needing some time to focus on those as well. I am hoping this weekend is a productive one. Anyways. I have another layout to share from the Paper Crafters Library feature I did for Bella Blvd.

This lovely young woman is my neice, on Joe's side of the family. Seems like just yesterday, but it was almost three years ago when I took her Senior pictures for her.

I knew I was focusing on the feathers for this layout, so I picked out my feathers first, using the colors in the photo to make my choices. Then I picked out my patterned papers to match the feathers and the photo.

I started by securing the feathers in place by stapling the bottom ends of each feather directly to my page. Two little staples for each feather does the trick. I adhered a few crochet hearts across the bottom of the feathers, which helps cover up the staples.

Once I had my journaling strips printed out and trimmed (remembering to leave a bit of room on each end for the brads), I laid them over the feathers to make sure I knew where I wanted them to be. I did one strip at a time, piercing holes in both ends of the journaling strip, through the feathers and the layers of papers. I held the strip down and immediately pushed my brads through the layers, so as not to "lose" my place, so to speak.

I find that a lot of the Bella Blvd feathers stay in place perfectly, even if you only secure the ends. And some shift a little, if not secured at the top as well. The feathers on this layout were definitely more fluffier than others, which made them perfect for this little technique.

Paper Crafter's Library: Bella Blvd Spotlight Feature

Bella Blvd is excited to have a special spotlight feature on Paper Crafter's Library today. We have chosen to feature our Feather collection. I have created FOUR brand new layouts, sharing different ways to use feathers on your layouts, how to adhere them, and how much interest they can add to your pages. I thought I would share one of them here today.

This gorgeous photo taken by my good friend Krista Lund, of her neice Ashley, called out to be matched up with a handful of fluffy and colorful feathers!

I usually cluster 2-3 feathers together when I am using them on a layout. But sometimes, a photo or a layout just calls out for more and more feathers! I chose five feathers to use on this layout, matching the colors to Ashley's dress and jacket in the photo.

I've mentioned this before, but I find that the easiest way to adhere feathers to my projects is by stapling them directly to the page. I just plan on covering up those staples with something afterwards. You can see here that I simply laid out my feathers where I wanted them to be. I knew I would be placing a paper strip over the ends, so I didn't worry about leaving a gap between the photo and the feathers.

Then I added two staples to the end of each feather. When I'm stapling further into the page, where my stapler can't reach, I lay my page over one of those cushy mats used for paper piercing. I staple right into that mat, and then gently pull the page off the mat. When the page is flipped over, you'll see the ends of the staples sticking straight up. I just use my finger to bend all of the ends down. Easy to do.

I cut a strip of patterned paper to add between the feathers and the photo, which would cover up all of the staples. I did my machine stitching first and then adhered it to the page. I did add some of my regular adhesive, even though I know it won't be super secure on the feathers. But I also added a few glue dots to the ends of the paper strip, which were being adhered straight to cardstock, and also added a few staples for extra security.

I hand cut one of the large brown zig zag pieces from the chevron patterned paper, traced it onto the yellow patterned paper, and then layered them together.

Head over to the Paper Crafter's Library to check out my other layouts (I will be sharing them here on my blog later on) and to learn more about working with this fun and trendy new embellishment! Bella is also sponsoring a giveaway on their site as well, so make sure to get your name in for a chance to win some of these gorgeous feathers!

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Sand & Surf

Our new monthly project sheet went up on the Bella Blvd blog yesterday.

For my April layout, I focused on the new Sand & Surf collection. Except that instead of using it for a beach or travel layout, I set out to use it for a regular summer layout. These photos were all taken at one of Sarah's birthday parties, a few years back. I wanted to pull out some of the photos of Joe's family from that day for this layout, since the majority of the photos of Sarah, her friends, and the actual party are already scrapped on other layouts.

You might notice that my two O's in "Pooside" are a little on the small side. I decided to use the inside's of the chipboard O's for two reasons. One being that I tend to run out of O's very quickly. I have plenty more packages that I could have opened, but figured I would save those for later. My second reason was that if I had used the actual O's in the package, my title wouldn't have fit. 

I try and do a fun technique of some kind on every project sheet layout that I create, and this month I decided to make a paper pieced sun element for the page. I used my trusty old circle cutter from Creative Memories to cut a large circle in the corner of my yellow patterned paper. Cutting it from the corner left me with two straight edges to line up on the aqua paper.

I also cut several strips of the yellow patterned paper, all about 3/4" wide. I misted all of the yellow pieces with water, scrunched them up into balls, flattened them back out and set them out to dry. This adds a ton of texture to your paper. You can see above that it almost looks like I adhered the large circle with pop dots. But I didn't. That's just how much texture I gained with the spritzing and scrunching.

After adhering the main part of the sun in the corner of the aqua wave patterned paper, I started adhering the sun rays. I tucked one end under the center of the sun, and then trimmed the other end to fit the design.

I had printed out a handful of 2"x3" photos to use on the page, before I really knew what the page was even going to look like. I didn't end up using all of them, but picked out five photos that summed up the afternoon. I adhered them all using pop dots, to add even more dimension to the page.

I sprinkled in a few threaded buttons, and added some stickers and chipboard pieces here and there.

You can download/print the project sheet, which has a complete supply list and full instructions, right HERE.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Spring Issue Has Arrived

Today is the day! The Spring 2013 issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today is available to view and download. You can head over to the Scrapbook & Cards Today website to download it. For FREE! You can't beat that.

I am really loving the look of this cover. It's bright and colorful and spring-ey, with the flowers peeking out from behind the layout and the sidewalk chalk laying next to it. I think we're all about ready for spring right about now, right?

And I also am loving this cover because that happens to be my layout on the cover! I was so excited to be asked to create a layout for the cover of the spring issue, using this gorgeous photo of Vicki Boutin's adorable daughter, Devyn.

Choosing papers for this layout was easy. I happen to have three of these patterned papers from Pebbles sitting on my desk when I received this photo. They were left over from a card I had just made for CardMaps Vol 3 (also launching today), and it was almost as if they were made to go with this photo. I pulled out a few more patterned papers and textured cardstock to mix in, to pick up more of the colors in the floral paper.

The pink chipboard alphas from Bella Blvd were the perfect shade and a great size for the title. It fit on there just right. I pulled out these older crochet flowers from American Crafts and topped each one with a coordinating button (from Fancy Pants and Basic Grey).

Make sure and stop by the Scrapbook & Cards Today website to view and/or download your FREE copy of the Spring issue. It's full of amazing layouts and cards, and has tons of inspiration from so many talented designers.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Snapshot

I had a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio earlier this week.

Sarah had taken these photos of herself, using the remote control for my camera, which was set up in my scrapbook room on a tripod. I didn't know she took these until I was downloading photos from my memory card a few days later. It's totally "her" to ham it up for the camera and take crazy photos of herself.

I used one of Kerri's Storyboard #1 templates to arrange my favorite photos and print them out in a collage. I had actually printed out this same collage in black and white ages ago, with the intention of scrapping them with some particular papers I had been wanting to use. That never really worked out, and I think it's because I knew the photos looked better in color. Luckiy, I had saved it, so I printed it out again, but this time in color.

The "Snapshots: Capturing Every Moment" title is one of Kerri's freebie shapes, and fit the theme of my page perfectly. All of my patterned papers are from Elizabeth Kartchner's Lucky Charm collection.

I also cut a few filmstrip frames from the This & That: Love [Just Shapes] kit from several patterned papers, and tucked them under the top of my photo collage.

I don't plan my layouts out most of the time. Which is why sometimes, I end up with empty spaces that need to be filled. That upper left corner was one of them. I came across some flair badges with the camera theme to them, and figured I'd use them.

Then I came across these very old chipboard circles from American Crafts and realized that they matched the colors of the Lucky Charm collection perfectly. I love when happy coincidences make my scrapping decisions easier.

I have another project that I'm finishing up for Kerri and hope to be sharing soon. The majority of it is done, so I'm not sure why it's taking me so long to finish. It's a larger framed project that I can't wait to hang up on the wall for all of us to enjoy and reminisce about.

Bella Blvd: American

Last Friday we revealed our new All American collection on the Bella Blvd blog, and this week we are sharing All American projects from our design team all week long. Five full days, with a new project from every single designer on the team. My layout was included on today's post.

This collection was perfect for scrapping some of the photos I took on Memorial Day last year. I did use a few of these photos before on a project sheet layout, but I really wanted to create a layout using more photos from the day to give a better view of the day. I used a storyboard template from Kerri Bradford Studio to create my photo collage, allowing me to get 9 photos on this one page. I also love that when I use a photo collage, I'm really just trimming one large photo, rather than trimming and adhering 9 individual photos.

I wanted to use the blue star patterned paper, but I didn't want it to overwhelm the page. So I used my Cameo to die cut this circle border to go along the left side of the page. I like that you can still see plenty of the star pattern on the blue paper, but it still allows bits of the white cardstock background to show through. I think it helps to balance out the white on the other areas of the page.

I wanted to add a little embellishing to the page, since it was mostly paper, stickers, and a few chipboard pieces, so I added some simple metal star brads along my circle border.

I used the "American" chipboard letters from the Chipboard Icons package for my title, dotting the "i" with a silver star brad. Since I was adding my journaling strips directly to the white cardstock background page, I lightly inked the edges of my strips with a navy blue ink pad to help them stand out. I had also lightly misted my white cardstock background with a light blueish misting spray.

Check out the Bella Blvd blog all week to see a wide variety of cards, layouts, and altered projects featuring this new collection (which begins shipping April 1st). There's a good mix of patriotic themed and everyday projects as well, showing how versitle the collection is.

Bella Blvd: District Honor Band

I have a quick layout share today that went up on the Bella Blvd blog over the weekend. Twice a month we have designers do their own takes on a sketch from Becky Fleck, and last week it was my turn.

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with this sketch.The one thing that I really liked was how the photo and small blocks of paper formed a long row from one side of the page to the other. It actually reminded me of a recent photo that I thought would work perfectly for this layout.

Alyssa loves band more than anything. She's been playing the clarinet since the 5th grade, I believe. She loves being a part of the high school band. It's become such a huge part of her life, and the majority of her friends are all fellow band members. Yesterday, while trying to persuade Sarah to join band next year as she had to turn in her class picks for freshman year (Eek. I'll have a freshmen and a senior next year!), she said that "all of us in the band are like one big family". She also said today that "Sometimes I want to ask people NOT in band what they do with their life". I love that she loves it that much!

Alyssa is in Honor Band at school, and was also selected to be a part of the District Honor Band and the County Honor Band this year (same as last year). This photo was taken at the District Honor Band concert which took place back in February. Since it was such a long group of band members, I knew that I could crop out a lot of the excess space above them and end up with a long, narrow photo. I think I ended up printing this at 11 inches long and only 4 inches tall.

I knew I wanted to use the aqua tone-on-tone music note patterned paper from the Birthday Boy collection, and that I wanted to mix it with lots of black and white, since band members wear concert black and white for their preformances. I really, really wanted to mix in another color, but no matter what I tried, it didn't work. So I kept with the aqua, black, and white color scheme. I pulled some scraps of patterned paper from lots of different collections to layer behind the large photo.

I am pretty sure that I meant to add a few of the black text buttons to the "D" and the "R" text chipboard alphas. I must have forgotten after I got done adding the clear star buttons to the black chipboard alphas.

You can see more takes on this same sketch, from a few of Bella's other designers, HERE.

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Feathers & Crochet Hearts

We have our new March step-by-step monthly project sheet up on the Bella Blvd blog today.

This month, I was asked to focus on the new feathers and crochet hearts for my project sheet layout. I started with the polka dot patterned paper from the Sand & Surf collection, and chose some feathers and crochet hearts in coordinating colors. I then pulled out a few patterned papers from each of the three new collections, since I really wanted to mix and match for this layout.

But by the time I got done with the layout, all of my papers had come from the Sand & Surf collection. Not sure how that happened, since I had great papers pulled out from the engagment and wedding collections.

I love that the crochet hearts perfectly match so many of the feathers. Such gorgeous colors!

You can download/print the project sheet, which has a complete supply list and full instructions, right HERE.

Jenni Bowlin: Guest Blogger Layout Shares

I am excited to be sharing projects over at Jenni Bowlin Studio this week and next. I was sent a few of their older 2012 kits as they are having a big sale on them right now. I have two layouts to share with you today and next week I'll share my cards.

I used the December Papercrafting Kit for this first layout. The more muted colors of the patterned papers reminded me of these photos of the girls and one of their best friends, Amanda, from years ago. The colors in the photos worked perfectly with this kit.

I started out with a few larger trimmed pieces of patterned papers that I knew I wanted to layer up against the right edge of the background paper. I distressed the edges of all of the papers to add some texture and had every intention of going back in and adding machine stitching along the edges. But it never happened. I did end up taking smaller pieces of some of the patterned papers and tucking them in here and there, adding even more layers to the mix.

I wanted my photos to stand out a bit more, so I rubbed some acrylic paint along the edges with my finger. In digging out my paints, I realized that the majority of my Making Memories paints are getting really dried up. But they still worked great for this. I loved that aqua burlap rose and debated whether to use it on the layout or on a card. The layout won.

I chose this "Friends" title card, made by Fancy Pants. These are manilla colored and are easy to alter to fit your needs. I painted the piece with some pink acrylic paint, trimmed off a little bit from the bottom, and distressed the edges. I then took the stamp that comes in the kit and stamped it onto the piece using some sort of ink. I wish I could remember what kind it was. It gave sort of a subtle glossy look, with a little touch of glitter.

You can find the December Papercrafting Kit on sale HERE.

I used the August Papercrafting Kit for this second layout. Since I had been digging around in older photos to find the ones on the layout above, I decided to keep looking to find more photos from back in the day. These photos of Sarah and Amanda are hilarious to me. There are even more crazy ones of them making all sorts of faces and being goofy. Not sure why I have never scrapped them before.

I stared with the graph paper which had a fun border of mixed patterns. So what you see going up and down the left side of the page is all one piece of paper, including the little tab up top. I wanted to adhere the green patterned paper piece right up against the edge of the border piece, but wanted to keep the tab intact. So I used my dreaded exacto knife (it's not a bad tool. I just really detest using one!) and cut a slit under the tab, so that I could actually slip my green patterned paper under it.

Once I added the green patterned paper, the black striped border sticker, the cream patterned paper, and the orange diagonal striped border sticker, I ended up covering up the entire graph pattern on the background paper. If I'd have planned things better, I would have just trimmed off the border strip so I could make good use of the graph paper. Hindsight, right?

I created my title using my Silhouette Cameo and one of the yellow patterned papers in the kit. I also wanted to use the fun stamp that came in the kit, with all the circles and dots. I picked out a navy blue ink pad, since there were touches of blue in the border paper, and stamped the image a few times onto a scrap of the same cream patterned paper that my title is adhered too. Then I used a circle punch to punch out lots of circles, and adhered them going up the edge of the page, slightly overlapping them as I went.

You can find the August Papercrafting Kit on sale HERE.

I created quite a few cards using these two kits, and one more additional kit. I will share those sometime next week.

Bella Blvd: Epiphany Team Up

All this week, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we have been teaming up with Epiphany Crafts for a week full of inspiration. A handful of our Bella designers were each sent one of Epiphany's punch tools and accessories to use along with our favorite Bella products. I was sent the Shape Studio Pennant Tool, along with the coordinating epoxy shapes.

I've had this photo collage of Sarah printed forever now. I never did use it for what I had originally printed it for, and was determined to finally get it scrapped. I went through my Bella stash to find some patterned papers that would match. The little hoodie she's wearing in the photo is green, with red cherries on it. So it seemed natural to pull some browns, blues, reds, and greens in.

I had a totally different idea in my head for the banner pieces. I was going to drape them, in a more curved way, above the title. The title which was originally "Sweet", an then got changed to "Sweetness" when I changed my mind on the banner pieces and ended up with an empty spot.

So in the end, I used the epoxy banner pieces as simple embellishments on the top and the bottom of the page. I kept wanting to add more to this page, but finally decided that I was happy with it the way it was.

I think I've mentioned before that birthday cards are the one type of card that I need the most, yet I never seem to have any on hand. I figured the banner shape seemed like a natural fit for birthdays, so I might as well make a few birthday cards.

I pulled out scraps of paper from the Birthday Boy collection to create this cute little row of epoxy covered banner pieces under the sentiment sticker.

And for my birthday girl card, I had to use the "You are the frosting to my cupcake" card from the Cute Cuts patterned paper. I adhered it to a brown patterned paper from the Birthday Boy collection and adhered it to the center of the card using pop dots.

Then I pulled out all the tiny scrap pieces of Birthday Girl patterned paper that I had, and went to town punching banner pieces. I decided to skip the epoxy shapes on this one, and just used the tool as a punch. I then started layering the pieces along the outside edge of the sentiment card for a playful look.

Stop by both the Bella Blvd blog and the Epiphany Crafts blog to see what the rest of the designers have created for you this week. You will also want to check out today's post on the Bella blog, as we are doing a BIG giveaway and you will want to leave a comment for a chance to win!

Bella Blvd: She Is My Entire Heart

Hey everyone! I've got two things to share with you today. First off, I have the second half of my guest blogger post up on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog today. On Monday, I had shared a layout inspired by a Pinterest image, and that layout included feathers. Today, I am sharing lots of tips and tricks to working with and adhering real feathers to your papercrafting projects. You can read more HERE!

And speaking of feathers, I realized that I never got around to sharing my last Winter CHA layout from Bella Blvd. Which is kind of strange, since it was actually the first layout I made of the bunch. It includes feathers, so it ties in well with what else I've been sharing this week.

I created this layout for the catalog, and I was asked to make a "awesome layout with as much of the new product as possibe". I love a good challenge! I started with these photos that I had taken of Holly, my good friend Deneen's daughter (one of four daughters). I knew they would be neutral enough with the colors to go with any product I picked out.

Then I started picking out patterned papers. I set out to pick at least one patterned paper from each of the four new collections. The green dot paper is from the Sand & Surf collection, the aqua chevron paper is from the Freestyle Sophisticates collection, the pink hearts paper and the black ruled paper are from the Love And Marriage collection, and the striped paper is from the Engaged At Last collection.

I cut strips of varying sizes from each patterned paper and pieced them together on a sheet of white cardstock. I added a strip of the new black chevron designer tape across the top of the page, and also used some torn strips of pink and aqua designer tapes on other areas of the layout. We didn't release any new buttons, but I knew I had to include a few of the fun black text buttons to help embellish the page.

I choose three of the new feathers to include on the page: black, green and aqua. I also picked out some of the new crochet hearts to use. I had only gotten a few color packs for my CHA work, so I decided to stick with all pink hearts, since they matched the best.

I layered the feathers together and stapled them in place. I used my tiny attacher on the ends of the feathers, since I knew I wanted those staples to show. I actually added some staples further up on the feathers to help secure them better, knowing that I was going to add this "I love you. The end" sticker (from the Love & Marriage collection) on top of the staples to cover them up. I adhered the sticker to a scrap of cardstock first and cut around it, which made it much easier to adhere the sticker with pop dots over the feathers.

For my title, I used a mix of the new green Sienna chipboard alphas, the new black alpha stickers from the Engaged At Last collection, and some new aqua High Five alpha stickers.

Oh, and I also snuck on a few of the new flags from the Engaged At Last collection. Almost forgot about those. I think I did a pretty good job at representing each of the new collections as well as each of the new embellishments.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Pinterest Inspiration

I'm excited to be guest blogging over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog this week. I have a post up today, and then I'll be back on Wednesday with another share related to the layout I'm sharing today.

{Pinterest Image}

I'm doing a Pinterest inspiration post. I think inspiraton images are great for challenging ourselves to try new things, for sparking our creativity when we are in a rut, or when we are just running low on ideas when it comes to our scrapping.

Here's a little peek at the layout I created, based off of that inspiration piece. You can see the entire layout and read more about how I was inspired HERE.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: February Colour Suite

Happy Valentine's Day! I have a new layout to share today. Summer Fullerton puts together a fun colour challenge each month for Scrapbook & Cards Today, and the February installment went up on the blog today.

Summer invited me to play along with her and I couldn't pass it up. I love a good color challenge, and when I saw the colors she picked out, I was excited to dive into my stash and see what I could come up with. 

Purple, two pinks, yellow, and white. Such a lovely color combination that I most likely would have never put together on my own. I started out digging through my patterned papers, putting together a mix of papers in the chosen colors that might work. I ended up with papers from Pebbles, Jillibean Soup, and Bo Bunny. One thing I learned? I don't have a wide selecion of purple patterned papers.

The next thing I did was go searching for photos. I really didn't have any particular ones in mind, so I just browsed through my external hard drives. Nothing was grabbing my attention or calling out to be scrapped. I'm not sure what made me think of this photo of Alyssa. I just suddenly thought about it, which worked well, since it was already printed.

My next step was cutting the circle background piece with my Cameo. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to cut this from a full sheet of patterned paper and adhere it to a sheet of white cardstock. Since I had my Cameo out and plugged in, I went digging for a possible title to use.

I usually just type in key words in the search box, since it's easier than browsing through my entire library. I believe this popped up when I had typed in the word "beautiful". It is a print and cut file, an it just so happened that the colors matched perfectly! Love when stuff like that happens. I printed it on white textured cardstock and trimmed around the edges.

I cut two large pieces of the two pink patterned papers to layer behind my photo, and tucked the title piece on the side. I wanted to add a bit more purple, so I used a large circle border punch along my tone-on-tone purple dot paper and tucked them under the top and bottom of my title piece.

I added some buttons and ribbon pieces to embellish my title piece. I won't lie. It was hard to find some purple buttons. Which is strange, because I own a gigantic amount of buttons.

And this trim from Webster's Pages. Pure yumminess! Such a gorgeous shade of yellow. I helped secure it on the ends with a few pink and purple-ish brads. I used the title piece to help guide my journaling. And a small secret? I have no clue how close that date is to the actual date that this photo was taken. Lol. This photo was take at a modeling session Alyssa attended when she was about 4 years old. I have scrapped other photos from this day, but I apparently never dated any of those layouts. Yes, I do guesstimate dates from time to time ;)

To see this challenge in it's entirety or to see Summer's past challenges, make sure to stop by and visit the Scrapbook and Cards Today site.

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Kiss Me

We put up our February project sheet over on the Bella Blvd blog yesterday, just in time for Valentines Day.

{Photo by Krista Lund Photography}

I used the Kiss Me collection for this month's project sheet layout. I knew I wanted to do a fun border along the side of the page using lots and lots of hearts. I used my Cameo to cut out the hearts, but you could easily use any die cut machine or a few punches. I cut two hearts for every one you see on the layout, since I was doubling them up.

I adhered the first set of hearts with regular adhesive. For the second set of hearts, I lightly folder the hearts in half so there was a crease top to bottom, and then adhered them by putting adhesive only down the center. This allowed the sides of the hearts to lift up for some extra dimension.

You can download/print the project sheet, which has a complete supply list and full instructions, right HERE.

My Week Facebook Style: A Creating Keepsakes Layout

Once again, my week got away from me. I'm pretty sure the month of January got away from me, just like the month of December did. Lol. The last two months have been a crazy blur. Between work, scrapbook work, the holidays, winter break, school, soccer, band, etc, we never seem to know if we're coming or going. Luckily we are finishing a few things up that will free up a bit more time in our days. Give us a little breathing room. We're all playing catch up and getting things back on track. As best we can. 

As seen in the January/February 2013 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

I realized I hadn't gotten around to sharing this Creating Keepsakes layout yet. I was asked to create a two page layout, incorporating Facebook status posts into my journaling. What seems like ages ago, I used to occasionally do these "Facebook Style Randomness" posts on my blog, where I would round up a bunch of my status updates and put them all together in one post. It was a way to catch up on little odds and ends in my life, for those of you that aren't on Facebook.

So when I got this assignment, it was easy enough to pull up just those posts, and find one that would work on a layout. I looked for a post where I had a decent number of status updates to pull from. I also made sure that I would have photos to support several of the status updates.

 

I was working on this layout right after Summer CHA, so I picked out several of the Bella Blvd patterned papers that we were coming out with at that time. I choose papers from the birthday collections and the fall collection, along with some of the new buttons.

I chose to print all of my journaling (or my Facebook status updates, I should say) and my photos in squares, since I was going with a grid design on my two page spread. I created text boxes in my word document and copied my updates into the boxes, formatting them to fit.

I had a few of these photos in my blog post to go with the updates, and some of the updates I had to find photos for.

I also added digital frames around the text squares. Don't ask me what frame, because I honestly don't remember. I made this layout forever ago.

See that little wood grain Facebook logo? By the time I had all of my status updates printed out and my photos printed out, I ended up with one empty spot on my grid. So I thought a Facebook logo would be nice to add in there. But the usual dark blue one you see wasn't going to work. I just googled "brown facebook logo" and ended up with tons of them to chose from.

I guess it is true. If you can't google it, it doesn't exist!

Bella Blvd: We Said I Do

Still powering through the week. It's Friday, which is a good thing. I love my Friday's now, since I only have one daycare kiddo. He's my one full-timer, and at 15 months old, he's a pure ball of energy and fun to be around. After the craziness of four very busy days, he gets me all to himself on Fridays!

I'm back with another layout that was up on the Bella Blvd blog earlier this week. This was my second layout using the new Love And Marriage collection.

I have borrowed photos of my cousin's wedding a few times over the years for other projects I've done. I don't think I've used these particular photos though. As I was browsing through the photos, I knew I wanted something to go with the "Going to the chapel" die cut card from the Cute Cuts paper, and these photos were perfect.

I love the softer colors in this collection, and used the green and aqua patterned papers for the base of my page. Sidenote: I just noticed the date and realized their wedding was almost exactly four years ago. And they are expecting their first baby in the next few months. A new little second cousin in the family.

I added a few of the lighter pink feathers to the page, and tucked them under the die cut "Going to the chapel" card, which I adhered using pop dots. I also added the chipboard chapel piece directly over the chapel that was printed on the card. It fit perfectly.

I used some of the Sienna chipboard alphas, along with a chipboard "i do" heart, to create my title. With a little "Bride & Groom" stick pin flag tucked in for fun.

You can see more projects featuring the Love And Marriage collection HERE, and check out THIS post for some gorgeous altered projects using this collection!

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Winter Wonder

We snuck in our step-by-step monthly project sheet for January just in the knick of time. How is today the last day of January already?!?! 

For this months project sheet, I was working with the Winter Wonder collection. I've used pieces of this collection before, but not really for winter layouts, seeing as we don't experience any sort of actual "winter" here in my part of California. But I was able to scrounge up the one and only set of snow pictures that we have, from a trip Alyssa took to the snow with her dad, aunt, and grandparents. Forever ago.

You can download/print the project sheet, which has a complete supply list and full instructions, right HERE.

Bella Blvd: April's Bachelorette Party

I don't know about you all, but the past two months have been a huge blue to me. No matter how hard I try, I cannot catch up on anything these days. Life, the house, scrapbooking deadlines and work, the day job, the laundry. I'm behind on all of it. I'd give anything to be able to take a few vacation days and work like crazy to get myself back on track. Not sure I see that happening any time soon though.

Anyways, I still have a few last CHA layouts for Bella Blvd to share with you. I feel like I've shared a ton of them this past month, but I only created 11 of them for the booth. I'm down to my last 3 that I haven't shared yet. This one was up on the Bella Blvd blog on Monday.

Once again, I borrowed photos for this layout from my good friend Krista. I'm so glad she was able to help out with photos, because I wasn't sure how I was going to use the Engaged At Last collecion based off my own photos. I got married forever ago, and never had any engagement photos, and we never had bachelor or bachelorette parties. I've only been to two weddings in the last ten or so years, and those family members didn't have any photos to fit either. Thankfully, Krista had lots of photos to fit.

I think the text patterned paper is really cute, with lots of fun bachelor and bachelorette party phrases. I like to use paper like that in small amounts, so I cut a large circle out of it to use in the upper corner.

The chipboard frame is so cute, but I didn't have a photo that would work in it. So I used it to hold the "Bachelorette" chipboard piece that was part of my title. I added some threaded black text buttons to the bottom of the frame.

I used a piece of the new Freestyle Sophisticates hand drawn grid patterned paper, in grey, on the top part of my layout. I think we all know that I love to use the regular grid patterned paper from Bella on a lot of my layouts. It's just a great neutral paper for backgrounds. This new hand drawn grid, in a variety of colors, will be a great basic as well.

I added a few of the new feathers, in black and yellow. Love the punches of black in this collection. I stapled them to the layout, and then adhered a crochet heart over the stapes. I tucked in a stick pin flag, and added a few more threaded buttons to embellish.

You can see more projects using the new Engaged At Last collection on the Bella Blvd blog right HERE, and if you want to see some gorgeous altered project ideas using this collection, click HERE.

Bella Blvd: Just Like Them

A few days ago, we shared some projects using the Kiss Me collection over on the Bella Blvd blog. While Kiss Me isn't a brand new collection, it was new enough to be shown and featured in the booth at CHA, which meant we needed some new projects showing it off.

I started this layout with the colorful chevron patterned paper, and pulled all of my colors from there. Navy blue is a favorite color of mine (especially to wear), even though I don't use it often on my layouts. I love the navy blue feathers, and decided to add in a sheet of the blue Sophisticates patterned paper to match, knowing I'd also be using the navy blue chipboard alphas.

I used some pink, yellow, and aqua designer tapes on the edges of my photos, so I used embellishments and stickers in those same colors.

I was trying to come up with a title for this page, and had a few colors of the chipboard alphas out. I was very limited with the green alphas, since I had only received one package for CHA work and had used quite a few of the letters. Took me a while, but I finally came up with a fun title, adding in some tiny alphas from the High Five stickers to add my subtitle. I cut the "I'll tell you a secret" sticker in half, to hold the entire subtitle.

Stop by the Bella Blvd blog to see lots more Kiss Me projects. We've also been sharing altered projects, featuring the new collections, and there are some gorgeous projects! You won't want to miss them.

Kerri Bradford Studio: 2 Words. In. Sane.

I had a new layout go up for Kerri Bradford Studio yesterday. I hadn't used my Silhouette since the last time I did a project for Kerri, which was at the beginning of December. I never use my Silhouette on my CHA projects for Bella Blvd, and that has been the only other projects I've done in the last month and a half. So it was really nice to get my machine out again.

I wasn't really sure at first what I wanted to scrap. I was actually going to do a soccer layout, using some divided page protectors. I was in the middle of printing photos, and had all of my shapes picked out that I wanted to cut. And then I realized that there was no way I would be able to finish it in time, since it was going to end up being two double page spreads. So I switched gears a bit, but stuck with the idea of using some divided page protectors. And this is what I came up with.

We have all been crazy busy around here lately. But Alyssa has had an extremely busy month, with school, winter league soccer, conditioning for high school soccer, County Honor Band, District Honor Band, homework, and every day life stuff. I thought it would be fun to document one of her busy weeks, and get her schedule down in a fun way.

I decided to use one of the Design F pocket page protectors from Becky Higgins. I like that it has room for one 4x6, perfect for the title, and then lots of 2x3 spots. I started out by digging through all of Kerri's kits to see what shapes I wanted to use. I came across the inFORMS kit, which I haven't used yet, and printed out the library card on white cardstock for my title piece.

I spritzed a bit of green misting spray on the card and went about finding a title. When I came across the "2 Words. In. Sane." phrase from the Say What 3 kit, I knew it would be perfect for the title. I first cut the entire title from black cardstock, and then cut a few of the pieces from green and red ruled patterned paper from Bo Bunny.

I picked out the days of the week from the Life Additions: Weeklies #2 kit, and cut them all from black cardstock. In the back of my mind, I thought I might go and cut them from colored cardstock to layer on top. But in the end, I just stuck with the black.

I should add that I actually picked out all of the shapes that I wanted to use, and cut them all from black cardstock at once. I copied and pasted the arrows a few times, so I could print more than one. I wasn't totally sure of my plan going into this, but figured I would have a good selection to start out with and could add or subtract as I went along. I like to layer two cuts together to create a shadow effect, and find that black cardstock works great for that bottom layer.

I also picked out a few phrases that I thought I could maybe incorporate into the page, knowing what my theme was. The "green grass" from the A Beautiful World kit stood out to me, since Alyssa had a ton of soccer stuff going on that week.

For the pockets without a photo, I trimmed 2x3" pieces of patterned paper. I used a few creamish tone-on-tone patterns from Bo Bunny and also some super old white grid papers from Scenic Route. For the creamish papers, I added a block of white cardstock that I machine stitched before adhering down.

I had borrowed a few photos from Alyssa's Instagram account ("steal", "borrow". same thing, right?) that I wanted to include that summed up what her week was about. Since these were all photos taken with her iPod Touch, they weren't the best quality. Also, because I took them from Instagram, they were square photos. So I couldn't print them as 2x3" photos.

I thought I would print out a few more of the cards from the inFORMS kit. When I pulled up this Score Sheet card and went to put my photo on top, I realized I could actually layer the photo under the form, for a sort of see-thru look. I thought this one looked really cool. You could also achieve the same look by printing the form on a transparency and layering it over your photo (thanks for that idea, Kerri!).

Once I had my three photos printed out and inserted, I started putting together the cards for the days of the week. I added my day, cut from the black cardstock, to each card, and the white cardstock squares. For the white grid cards, I simply misted them with the green spray mist.

I added a few arrows (from the Say What 3 kit and the Need Directions? kit) here and there, cutting them from the same green and red patterned paper that I used on my title cut.

I printed out my journaling, which is really just a list of her schedule and activities for the week. It was fairly simple, since I could copy and paste the things that happened more than once. Like "7.5 hours of school", which I needed four of (she missed school one day to attend a 7.5 hour band rehearsal). I adhered all those tiny journaling strips to the appropiate days.

I added a little washi tape here and there, in greens, reds, and blacks.

I used this group shot from the County Honor Band concert (Honor Choir too, but she's not a part of that). It was a fantastic 2.5 hour performance that just leaves you in awe of the musical abilities of these teens. It's the best of the best from the county, and Alyssa was one of twelve band members chosen from their school to go. I printed it behind the library card, and I meant to add some letter stickers to the top saying "County Honor Band". I am just now noticing that I didn't do that. Oops.

I also added some tiny number stickers to each card for the date. I started to put the entire date for the week on the title card, but it wasn't looking right. So I put the "January 2013" on the title card, and added the number for each day to the appropiate card.

And yes, I am pretty sure that she DID find a little bit of time to relax on Sunday!

I won't lie. This page took me FOREVER. And I am pretty sure that this is the most cuts I have ever made with the Silhoutte for one single page. I am planning on something similiar for the soccer page I mentioned earlier, so hopefully I will find some time for that soon.

Bella Blvd: Love For Life

I ran out of time last night to get this post scheduled and am not trying to toss it up super quick before the daycare kid realize I've snuck away for a minute. They don't like when I try and be productive during the day ;)

Today, we are sharing layouts on the Bella Blvd blog that use the new Freestyle Sophisticates patterned papers. I love the Sophisticates patterned papers, as they are great "basics" that an be mixed and matched with any other given collection. For this layout, I only used two small strips of patterned paper from the Kiss Me collection, and then picked out four different colors of the Freestyle patterned papers to match.

When Stephanie first showed me these designs, I loved the hand drawn chevron design. But I also commented on how the fact that they weren't totally straight and even was going to drive me a bit crazy, seeing as how I love things perfectly straight. Once I had them in my hands and started cutting, I realized that if you trimmed off two rows of the chevron arrows at once, they made a straight piece. If that even make sense.

And then, after all that worrying about things being straight and even, I went and adhered them down on my page in uneven rows. A bit wonky, if you will. I might have even used a ruler to make sure my uneven rows were still somehow even by the time they were stacked up.

I added a few feathers for fun, along with a few threaded buttons. If you look closely here, you can see where I hand stitched this feather in two places using some coordinating green thread. Just to be sure the feather stayed where I wanted it.

Stop by the Bella Blvd blog to see more projects using these new papers! I will be back late tonight with a new layout share for Kerri Bradford Studio.

Bella Blvd: Aptos Beach

Today, on the Bella Blvd blog, we are sharing some of our CHA layouts and cards using the new Sand & Surf collection. This is such a fun summer collection, and it might have been my favorite to work with.

You might recognize these two adorable little girls from THIS layout. When my friend Krista was sending me photos to choose from, I had a hard time deciding which beach photos to use for this layout. I'm glad I was able to use both sets of pics that grabbed my scrapbooking eye.

I got a lot of use out of the Borders and Cute Cuts patterned paper on this layout. I used four different border strips, adding machine stitching along all of the edges.

The arrow, cloud, and sun along the top of my layout are all pieces that I cut from the Cute Cuts patterned paper. I love the Sienna chipboard alphas, and am excited that we have a few new colors coming out. Pickle Juice green is a color I will use over and over.

I printed out four photos in 3x3" squares. I choose to crop them leaving a bit of white space in at least one corner of the photo. I thought it would be fun to add some of the word/phrase stickers from the Alpha+Bits and Miniatures sticker sheets.

I also added a stick pin flag to one of the photos. I glue dotted the actual paper flag part, and added a few small torn pieces of designer tape to the pin part of the flag. I adhered all of the photos using lots of pop dots, and added the chipboard wave in between the photos.

I wanted to use the tall ruled journaling sticker, knowing I would print out my computer printed journaling (or Krista's journaling, I should say) and add the strips to the sticker. I ended up cutting off part of the journaling sticker to make it fit the space, so I still have a piece of it left for another project.

I used a small piece of the sandcastle border strip in this lower corner of the page, and added some scalloped punched strips of white cardstock to the top and bottom. I wanted to get some designer tape on the layout and decided to use a variety of pieces to create a little banner border. I cut a notch in one end of each piece, and layered them together.

Stop by the Bella Blvd blog to see lots more projects using the Sand & Surf collection. And stay tuned, as we have a ton more projects to share next week.

Bella Blvd: Wedding

Yesterday, on the Bella Blvd blog, we shared a ton of layouts and cards using the new Love And Marriage collection. Here's one of the layouts I made with this collection for the booth at CHA.

Once again, I borrowed some photos from my talented friend Krista. The truth is, I used her photos on five of the eleven layouts I made for CHA. I'm very grateful that she's so willing to share with me (and in return, she gets to keep any layouts I get back!), because aren't these gorgeous photos?

I pieced several border strips, pieces of patterned paper, and a border sticker together to create the base of my page. I love the touches of black in this collection as it really ties in so nicely with wedding photos. The black ruled patterned paper has aqua lines mixed in, and it's one of my favorites.

After I had all of my paper pieced together, I machine stitched along all of them. I knew that I wanted to use the pink chipboard flower, and hand cut the yellow and aqua flower from the Cute Cuts patterned paper. I think they make a really cute cluster with the coordinating threaded buttons on each flower.

I picked out the yellow and aqua feathers to add along with the flowers. To adhere the feathers I simpy stapled down the bottom ends of the feathers, since I knew the flowers would cover that area. Then I adhered my flowers using pop dots right over where my staples were.  

Make sure and check out the Bella Blvd blog for even more projects using this new collection. Our new products will start shipping on February 15th, so it won't be long before you can get your hands on these fun products!

Bella Blvd: Engaged And So In Love

For the next few weeks, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we are going to be sharing lots and lots of our Winter CHA booth projects. Yesterday we started with projects featuring the new Engaged At Last collection.

I wanted to create an engagement layout, so I asked my talented friend Krista if I could borrow some engagement photos from one of her sessions. I chose these photos of her friends Matt and Nicole, and printed them in black and white, which allowed me to mix and match them with any colors in the collection. 

I started by misting my white cardstock background paper with some pink spray mist. I adhered some strips of patterned paper and a few border stickers across the top and bottom of the page, and added some machine stitching. I choose three patterned papers (the pink chevron, the black diamond, and the aqua arrows), and trimmed a large rectangle from each paper. I distressed the edges of each piece and machine stiched around the edges.

The distressing and stitching around the papers helps add a lot of dimension, so that the papers aren't so flat against the page. I adhered them across the center of the page, and then layed a coordinating feather on each paper. To adhere the feathers, I simply stapled them down since I knew that my photos would hide most of the feathers. I just wanted them to poke out from the tops of the photos a bit. I then adhered my three photos using lots of pop dots.

The chipboard ring was the perfect accent to this page, along with the "he proposed" and "I said yes" chipboard pieces. I clustered them up in the upper left corner of the page.

I added a few more chipboard elements to the page, across the bottoms of the photos. I adhered the grey scalloped chipboard border using pop dots, since my photos were already raised up. Then I adhered the "engaged" chipboard piece to my photos, using pop dots as well. Lots and lots of pop dots on this page! I also tucked in the little stick pin flag with the wedding ring.

Make sure and check out the Bella Blvd blog for even more projects using this new collection. Our new products will start shipping on February 15th, so it won't be long before you can get your hands on these fun products!

Bella Blvd: CHA Winter Sneak Peek - Feathers

CHA Winter opens up this coming Saturday! It's always exciting to see all of the new products that the manufacturers are coming out with, isn't it? This week, on the Bella Blvd blog, we are continuing with our new product reveals of what will be making it's debut in their booth this weekend.

And today we are revealing our exciting new embellishment. Feathers! Feathers have been a big trend in the fashion world, and now Bella is bringing feathers to the scrapbooking world. Check out the rainbow of colors the feathers are available in. All of Bella's bright and fun colors they are known for, with shades to match any and all of their collections. They add lots of texture and interest to your projects, and are lots of fun to work with. Each package comes with four feathers.

I created this layout for the catalog, for the page featuring the feathers. I started this layout by picking out a handful of colors to work with, and then found a few photos to match and some coodinating papers from the new collections.

Since I knew I was adding quite a few feathers to my page, I decided to fan them out, coming out from behind one of my photos. The feathers come in a mix of sizes and shapes. Some are thinner, some are wider. Some are fluffier, some are more flat. They really do add a fun texture to the page.

My title was inspired by the arrows on the patterned paper I used as my background paper (which will be revealed in a new collection later this week). I started with my chipboard alphas to spell "Direction", and then after lots and lots of back and forth with myself, I settled on the rest of the title which I created with alpha stickers from the High Five Alpha sticker sheets.

My journaling is always the last thing I do on my layouts, so it was written after finally deciding on the title.

The feathers can be a bit tricky to adhere. I found that the easiest way to adhere them in place was to position them so that the ends were under another element on the page. This allows you to hide things. Like the staples that I used to adhere all of these feathers! I simply staped the ends down first, and then adhered my photo and journaling/title card over them, using pop dots and glue dots. I did a little shifting of the feathers here and there, so that I knew the adhesive was touching down to the paper in several spots to secure things.  

I also added a few of the wooden buttons to my page. Since they were positioned over the feathers, they added a little extra hold to keep them in place. Normally, I thread my buttons and then glue dot them to my layouts. But since I wanted these buttons to help hold the feathers in place, I did handstich them onto the page.

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Make sure and stop by the Bella Blvd blog to see the full reveal, projects featuring these new products, and a chance to get in on our giveaways for each reveal. Keep checking in, as we have lots more fun products to reveal to you!

Bella Blvd: CHA Winter Sneak Peek - Designer Tapes

I know I have been very quiet here on the blog lately, but with good reason. CHA Winter is taking place a few weeks earlier this year than most years. This means that I spent most of December trying to balance a ton of CHA work for Bella Blvd (behind the scenes planning and creating projects), work (2 new daycare little ones came in December), family, soccer, and Christmas ... all at the same time. I won't lie. It's been pure madness. But the good news is that I should have plenty to blog about for the next few weeks. Starting with this:

Yes, it's sneak peek time on the Bella Blvd blog and you won't want to miss it! Starting today, and continuing into next week, we are revealing the new collections and products that Bella is debuting at CHA Winter (starting January 12th). I've been working with all of the new products for the last two weeks and I'm excited to let you all in on the fun new goodies!

We are starting the reveals with our new Designer Tapes! When Bella first came out with their own tapes (CHA Winter 2012), I was excited to try them out. I had never used washi tapes before, but they have quickly become a favorite supply of mine. If you're looking for bright, fun, and colorful tapes, Bella definitely has what you're looking for. We are introducing 9 new individual tapes (including the extremely popular yellow chevron that has been sold out for ages) and 3 combo packs (includes rolls not sold individually). Don't blame me if you want them all ;)

I created this layout focused on the new tapes. I had these photos of my friend Krista's daughters, and picked out a wide variety of the new designer tapes in colors to match. Even though I stuck with aquas, yellows, greens, and tans, I had plenty of designs to choose from. I used a total of 12 different rolls.

I tore off strips that were just shy of 12 inches long, and lined them up across the page, top to bottom. I basically used my tapes to create my own "patterned paper" background. I also used a few torn pieces of tape on the sides of my photos, and added a threaded button to each.

You're getting tiny peeks at some other products that we'll talk about later ;)

I also added some zig zag machine stitching along some of the designer tape strips. One thing that I love about the tapes are that they are very forgiving, and you can peel them up and move them around without tearing papers and/or photos. They stay put very well too. But when I want to be totally safe and make sure they don't go anywhere, maching stitching is an easy way to secure them down.

Make sure and stop by the Bella Blvd blog to see the full reveal, another project featuring the new Designer Tapes, and a chance to get in on our giveaway, where one lucky blog reader will win a full set of our new tapes. Keep checking in, as we have lots more fun products to reveal to you!

Kerri Bradford Studio: Christmas 2007

What a week. My broken power cord forced me off the internet for two days, and then when my new cord arrived, I forced myself off the internet for another day. Too much going on at once, and not enoug time to do it all in. Anyways. I'm finally back and wanted to share a layout I had up at Kerri Bradford Studio earlier this week.

I came across some Christmas photos from a family get-together, taken back in 2007, that I had never gotten around to scrapping. I had quite a few photos, and wanted to get them all onto a layout, so I picked out one of Kerri's Storyboard templates to create two quick photo collages. 

I knew the collages would go side by side, on the two pages, so that it created one large collage across the two-page spread. So I simply turned the template upside down, so that the template design was flip flopped on the second page.

I love using Kerri's handwritten words. I can only dream of having such gorgeous handwriting. Believe me, you would NOT want my handwriting on your layouts. Lol. I used the "Christmas" from the newer December Twenty Five kit, which has TONS of handwritten words.

I never use snowflakes, being as we live in California, where we just don't have true "winters" or see any snow. But since the majority of the family was wearing a lot of blues, browns, reds, and lighter colors, I thought it would be a nice opportunity to go with a more "winterey" color scheme and use the snowflakes instead of Christmas trees, presents, or other typical Christmas themed shapes.

I used one of the snowflakes from the This & That: Winter [Shapes Only] kit. I cut a lot of these, from several colors of cardstock and patterned paper, along with some from white cardstock. I knew what I wanted to do, but I also didn't take the time to figure out how many snowflakes I would really need. Turns out, it was a LOT less than I thought, meaning I had tons of leftovers.

All of the patterned papers that I chose for this layout are older papers from Fancy Pants. I believe from their 2011 Christmas collection.

I didn't add any journaling to this layout, which isn't normally something I skip. But I'm not that worried about it, since this is really just a collection of photos from Christmas day, which we know involved family, good food, gifts, and spending time together. I added the year and called it "done".

I really hope you've been checking Kerri's blog these past two weeks, for her "12 days of Christmas" feature. She's been sharing projects, video's, and tips, along with having a freebie shape available each day. But only for that day. Which is why I will feel terrible if you havn't been checking in, since we're 11 days in now. Rest assured, if you've missed downloading these shapes, she will have them all available as a kit later on.